Release

by Suzanne Clay

"Because if I use you like a sex toy and send you on your way when I'm the one who signs your paychecks, gives you an office space, and is responsible for a letter of recommendation when you decide to move on from here... That doesn't sit well with me." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I refuse to be that bastard who wields all the power over someone."

"Do you want to be ruined?" she asked. He licked his lips. His thumb drew a slow circle on her inner thigh before he replied. "By you? Yes. Absolutely."

His expression was stunned and reverent all at once, as though she was a goddess who had come to bless him with her presence.

Even if my mom hadn't been firm on what I was allowed to major in, I don't think I would've seen it as a viable career. Something like that requires a lot of drive, don't you think? You have to be assertive and sell your dreams to a client, or be very good at charming theirs into reality. I don't think I’m good at either of those."

Sometimes it took one amazing person to look someone dead in the eye and show them all the good that they deserved first. And only then would it feel possible to chase it.

What if I try to be big, but find that I'm destined to remain small?"

If the old lessons she'd been taught about her body being a temple were right, then she adored how she was being worshipped and desecrated all at once.